The Ordering Of Moses

Sunday, October 12, 2025 at 2 pm

Roger Glass Center for the Arts – 29 Creative Way, Dayton, OH 45479

Reserved Seating. Tickets at the door or in advance (ticket link below) Special Pricing for this concert - All seats $10

Park in lots D or S1 (Rubicon and K St.) Accesible parking adjacent to the building off of the Creative Way side entrance

Contact MVSO at 937-530-0515 for Wheelchair and Accesible seating or for more information

The Music

George Walker Lyric For Strings
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Toussaint L'Ouverture
Robert Nathaniel Dett The Ordering Of Moses

About the Program

Pianist and composer George Walker wrote the “Lyric for Strings” while a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music. Originally written as the second movement of a string quartet, it was later broadcast on radio in a string orchestra version titled “Lament.” Walker dedicated the work as an elegy “To my grandmother.” Walker creates an endless line of melody, sincerity, and beauty in a short work that conveys his deep understanding of music in a manner that comes directly from the heart.

Little is known of the performance history of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s tone poem, “Touissaint L’Ouverture” beyond the premier on October 26th, at London’s Queen's Hall. Lost to history, the handwritten and fragmented score was transcribed by our own principal timpanist, Marty Jenkins for this performance. The work was only recently revived and this MVSO performance is among the very first to be heard worldwide. Written as an homage to the Haitian general of the same name who fought for independence and the end of slavery in Haiti, the work demonstrates the richly romantic and soaring melodies that Coleridge-Taylor is known for.

Nathaniel Dett’s “Ordering of Moses” was written for his graduation thesis at the Eastman School of Music in 1932. It premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus in 1937 in a live broadcast on NBC radio. Dett was an accomplished poet and wrote the text himself drawing inspiration form the biblical account of Moses leading the Israelites to freedom. While written as a continuous oratorio there are four themes represented: The Israelites in bondage, The ordering of God to Moses to deliver Israel, the parting of the Red Seas and escape to freedom, and the rejoicing of the Israelites. Dett makes the obvious correlation of modern-day slavery to that of the plight of the Israelites. The score literally calls for the “clanking of chains” as an instrument effect in the percussion section and incorporates the melodies of well-known and powerful negro spirituals such as “Go Down, Moses” and “He is King of Kings” masterfully into the fabric of the musical score.

Performing Artists